Mriodom – Vlies
Mriodom – Vlies
Self-Released
Release Date: 03/10/25
Running Time: 42:49
Review by Dark Juan
9/10
Greetings from a grey and miserable West Yorkshire. I have just returned from dropping off Mrs Dark Juan at our friend (yes, I know, I am as surprised as you are because I am famously misanthropic and not easy to get along with) Helen’s house so they can (her, Mrs Dark Juan and our other friend Janie jokingly refer to themselves as a coven) visit a witchcraft exhibition at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire. Which has left me foolishly unattended upon at home so I have decided that I should write things about music. I have an appallingly busy week at work next week so this will hopefully keep the three of you who regularly read my drivel busy until I have time to write more. I say, the things I do for you…
In other news, and this might surprise you; I appear to be very good at what I do at work but have to learn to not look at my fucking work emails over the weekend, because it’s just depressing. Therefore, because I have put myself in an introspective and somewhat sullen kind of mood which means it is time to exercise those synapses and hopefully get a dopamine hit into the bargain. The Platter of Splatter™ has therefore been unleashed, and the offering I have selected today is from German Sax-O-Doomsters Mriodom. Full disclosure – this is a German language record, so I have no fucking idea what the band are singing about, even though I have been a Rammstein fan for decades. I still will absolutely mangle any attempt at speaking German and for that I will apologise in advance to any German readership I have not yet alienated.
“Vlies” opens with ‘Sturm’ and it begins the record with some saxophone which does something I didn’t know saxophones could do, which is to be lamenting and sorrowful. Normally they are a squawky sex horn that invites a bit of rumpy-pumpy with the person of your choice. They don’t normally lay your nerves out like piano wires and start plucking them, like Mriodom have somehow managed to achieve. This made Dark Juan experience something which he hasn’t in a while, being an actual emotion instead of neurodiverse masking to fit in with all the norms… This introspective, wailing sax doesn’t last long though, as an all-encompassing wall of Mogadon-slow Metal crashes into being and promptly crushes the listener beneath the weight of their own sadness. However, a surprising uplift in the music comes from vocalist/saxophonist/ clarinettist Babett Kasser, whose swooping voice soars above the extremely dour music that Mriodom plays. She is a woman of artifice, who is not the most technically accomplished of singers, yet her powerful, strident voice carries with clarity and precision above some of the most heavily distorted, deeply murderous bass and guitar I have ever heard. Dark Juan is reminded somewhat of the powerhouse vocalist of Grendel’s Sÿster, Caro. The mix is powerful and focused and heavier than a fleet of Soviet battlecruisers, yet it retains some clarity – the drums and the tinware cut cleanly through the horrifically intense sludge, and I have to say it…
The squawky sex horn fucking WORKS with Doom Metal!
Frequently throughout the album, it serves as the lead instrument, mournfully howling above the distorted sorrow of the music, and Babett shows range throughout the whole album, from unhinged, off-kilter screams to icy-clear diction. Mention must also be made of drummer Till’s vocals, his deep-throated, Stygian stentorian roars underpinning Babett’s Arctic tones in an interesting and (for Dark Juan, anyway. I have very particular tastes. Take Castle Rat, for example. They have everything that Dark Juan loves, like female vocals over Doom Metal, swords, psychedelia and shit, but I am not that into them, although one is trying to educate one’s ear. Some of my mates fucking love them though) well thought out way. That melding of beauty and horror has always resonated with Dark Juan.
This is not to say that Mriodom are one-trick ponies though. They are very capable of dialling down the aggression and going into realms that skirt the Gothic – the intro and verse of ‘Dämmerung’ exemplifying this perfectly, with a simple refrain that echoes throughout the song as the heaviness builds. It starts off gently but sorrowfully but builds to a plateau before pulling you back down into the depths of introspection and hiraeth. Hiraeth, for those of you who are not familiar with the word, is a deep longing for something you are not near to, like home, normally associated with the Welsh. And then it climbs into rage, screaming at yourself to fucking pull up your big boy (or girl) pants and damned well pull yourself together.
That is the main thing I am taking from this album. It is hiraeth personified in music. It’s… naked, in a way. It is the sound of someone absolutely giving into the sadness they are feeling, but at the same time raging against it. The female vocal is strident, insistent and sounds like someone trying to pick themselves up out of their despond, which is represented by the music being so low-key and dour. The sax is a really powerful weapon, being breath-activated and being able to cry and wail and howl and scream, giving the music an all-too human and frail, febrile quality that makes “Vlies” a superb, but deeply uncomfortable listen.
We are strong, but even the strongest of us have a breaking point. Mriodom is the sound of the razor edge of the very limit of being able to cope, and the fall into depression when you can’t cope any more. They are an emotional event horizon, the point where light turns to black. The more I think about this album, the more I feel that they have managed to capture, in music, the absolute limit of normal sanity, and they have not done it through speed or just heaviness, they have done it through hitting rock-bottom and recording their own thoughts and transposing them into music. That’s absolute fucking musical alchemy in action.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System is now going to absolutely mangle some German. Hallo, meine deutschen Freunde! Hier ist Dark Juan und das patentierte Dark Juan Blood Splatter Rating System! Es fühlt sich seltsam an, dass ich kein gutes Deutsch spreche, obwohl Deutsch und Englisch beides germanische Kehlsprachen sind. Trotzdem produziert Deutschland einige der besten Metal-Songs der Welt, und ich bin überzeugt, dass Mriodom als überlegen gelten sollte. Ich würde euer Land gerne eines Tages besuchen und euch alle beleidigen, indem ich eure Sprache verstümmele! It awards Mriodom 9/10 for a superb album that has absolutely destroyed Dark Juan, in an emotional sense.
Bastards. I really didn’t think I had any feelings left.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Sturm
02. Ödnis
03. Rache des Berges
04. Kult
05. Dämmerung
LINE-UP:
Kay Assel – Bass
Till Bachman – Drums, vocals
Carla Betancourt – Guitars
Babett Kasser – Vocals, saxophone, clarinet
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
